I often get exhausted by the overwhelmingness (is that a word?) of the story. It's all too much, too epic. I mean WE have mindflayers, red dragons, spider matriarchs, hags, beholder, drow, gighyanki etc. in just a few hours gameplay. And when you encounter normal enemies like goblins, they come in hords, because the gods forbid If it's not epic. I miss normal beginner quests and some excitment curve. To be honest, nowadays I often burn out midgame and stop playing.
Exactly.
Beginning of the game should not have us fighting imps. A single Imp could potentially wipe a party of 4 level 1s. We fight at least 7 before we reach the helm plus 2 hellshogs, whatever those are.
Then, most likely before level 2, we fight not 1 but 3 intellect devourers, and again, 1 could likely wipe an entire party of 4 level 2s, but we face them with just the MC and SH.
Why not, instead, start the game fighting 4 Manes. 9 AC and 9 HP with no resistance and +2 to hit. Challenge Rating 1/8, meaning 8 is a moderate challenge for 4 level 1 characters?
Then, on the beach, have us fight something like 4-6 Neogi Hatchlings. AC 11, HP 7. +3 to hit. No resistance. CR 1/8. This would also then tie into Lae'zel's dialogue later which says, "I've seen Kith'raki pull the legs off of a screaming Neogi.". Ah. Now the players know what a Neogi is.
You can have intellect devourers running around the nautiloid and demons and mind flayers, and if a player is dumb enough to attack one they wipe the floor with them, but in no way should the player be able to actually kill any at that stage in the game unless they are SUPER lucky.
That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. They want you, the player, to go. "Oh dang! I just killed a dragon! Can you believe it? I'm so awesome. I'm like a god."
The answer, "No. That was no dragon. It had a dragon skin, but it acted nothing like a dragon and had virtually no dragon stats. You fought a nerd sword, my friend."
